In this article the author indicates the necessity of application of transmedia perspective in mediatization research. He understands mediatization research as a kind of analysis that investigates

the interrelation between the change of media and communication on the one hand and culture and society on the other, refl ecting the transforming role of media within this interrelation. The author emphasises that the idea of communicative fi gurations makes a mediatization research in a transmedia perspective possible. Communicative figurations are patterns of processes of communicative interweaving that exist across various media and have a “frame” that orients communicative action and therefore the sense-making practices of this figuration.

The article is analyzing the process of mediatization and medicalization of the public sphere in the contemporary world. These processes are a very dynamic one and changing significantly the relationship between politics and the media, especially media institutions. No doubts, the political context of mediated politics deserve an ongoing analysis and diagnosis. A new process: medialization of politics is a subject of a new research and analysis and is showing the growing role of media in the public life. The analysis is presenting the positive and negative aspects of both processes and should be continued in the future.

The article is an attempt of synthetic look on what the German studies on communication in the field of the mediatization of politics have accomplished. It consists of four parts. The first one touches upon terminological issues, since appearance of the two terms “mediatization” (Mediatisierung) and “medialization” (Medialisierung) is connected to different ways of understanding the relations between the sphere of politics and mass media. The second part analyzes positive and negative effects of the mediatization of politics in Germany. The third one justifies the meaning of the empirical research on this issue and presents the results of public opinion poll research concerning the relationship between the political and media elites. The last part examines the presence and the future of democracy in the context of the mediatization of politics.

Various studies on the meaning and the scope of mediatization and the relations between media system and political system seem to be insufficient, taking into account of all the transformations that have occurred for the past 6–8 years. The author is concerned how the process of mediatization changed under the influence of new media and ICT. Whether the political parties’ ability to create independent, owned or shared, and mediatized through the world wide web, channels and tools of communication undermined the existing model of political communication? In order to provide a new approach, the author refers to selected aspects of marketing communication and applies media typology based on the PEO(S) model

After each election Polishmedia publish nationwide rankings of candidates, comparing the number of votes gained individually. Analysis of the individual results of such candidates, however, shows that they are strongly dependent on factors external to a candidate –the size ofparticular district, its territorial structure and the turnout. The results depend not only on the candidates’ previous media visibility, but also on the visibility of their competitors.

The article is devoted to the questions of ethical dilemmas of political activists’ appearance in the media. The author utilizes the results of monitoring the national radio and TV stations and asks – who is the leader of the media? Who is allowed to speak? Who is recognized as an authority? The article tries to re-create the picture of political leaders and their political agenda. In this context the author calls for a public debate on this issue and discussion on contemporary political reality

Contemporary public debate is in general a media debate, organized by journalists working for major media companies. Journalists are not merely employees of their corporations. They, as “opinion leaders”, shape political attitudes as well as behaviors of their viewers, readers and listeners. Compounds between media and politics are multifaceted and one of them is relationship between journalists and politicians. Each party tries to infl uence the other, with various results but it certainly can be said that politicians and journalists are interdependent. However, in recent times, journalists are increasingly dependent not only from politicians but also from their employers, thus weakening their professional position. This leads to a reduction of the importance of informational function of the media for the sake of entertainment. The aim of the article is to examine political journalism in terms of relationships between interviewers (journalists) and interviewees (politicians) taking place during television interviews. The analysis is carried out mainly through the prism of actors and themes occurring in the context of the convergence of traditional and tabloid journalistic standards.

Non-governmental organizations provide a mature form for non-formal movement organizations and intervene in different ways in politics and political parties activities. In the political communication studies they should be treated as civic participation platforms that give possibility to expand the practice of dialogue and public debate as well as partners representing civic society in relation with political actors. The aim of this chapter is to characterize and analyze the scope of mediatization of non-governmental organizations participating in political communication processes in Poland.

According to the Joseph S. Ney’s soft power concept, in the audiovisual era grows the significance of the non-material elements of a state’s power and the perception of the state in the international circles based on its image. Governments of numerous countries create specific promotional strategies within which different types of communication tools are applied, including the Public Relations tools with a special emphasis of the media relations and event marketing and also the Nation Branding and Public Diplomacy. The tasks of the government is then first of all to establish a relevant direction of proceedings and then to coordinate the activities of all of the entities which participate in the implementation of the country’s promotional strategy

The questions of sport instrumentalization and use of sport events for PR purposes that are raised in this article have been discussed for many years. In recent decades however one may observe the intensified competition and efforts of states to obtain the rights to organize sport events, especially the Olympics, FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship. As in such events the media interest all over the world has been enormous, event hosting country gains a unique chance to promote and strengthen its image. The PR strategies realized by Poland during the organization of EURO 2012, analyzed in this article, are an example of such actions.

Changes that take place in social and media space on the local level indicate a weakening position of media. Current sources of media power start to be increasingly taken over by new political actors. Participants of the media market as well as actors active in social space acquire new competences, which were previously characteristic only of journalists. The balance of forces, relations as well as interrelations between media and politics starts to create a new form of partnership and cooperation. This gradually leads in consequence to the codependency of media and politics in financial and organizational aspects. This raises a question of how public institutions, including those of the local level, can find themselves in the existing reality? Do they have a chance to pursue their information and communication functions? And finally, does the mediatization of a local political scene allow for the individual shaping of the relations of the local government with its social environment and building a reputation?

Internet plays an increasingly important role in the political communication between citizens and institutions of the European Union. There are the potentials and constraints of the Internet in terms of mediating or facilitating the communication processes for citizens. The World Wide Web may contribute to the democratization of the Union.  Nonetheless it appears that the right communication policy of the EU institutions is essential in this context. The results of content analysis of the European Commission’s websites allowed to indicate main trends in the EU communications. Application of such techniques as simplifi cation, visualization, personalization, dramatization and polarization redounds to the changes in political communication in the EU. Prevalence of techniques that aim to increase communication attractiveness – being in thrall to the rules of marketing – may have a negative impact on civic participation in the political processes in the EU and also on the institution of European citizenship

The idea of free flow of information, for which after II world war developed democratic countries fought on the United Nations and UNESCO forums, was primarily based on the American concept of freedom of the press and the belief that the source of human progress is unrestricted activity of individuals and free competition, uninhibited by state authorities intervention. Today, with the Internet we finally have free access to information and freedom of passing it on to others. However, frequently there are more cases of limiting access to certain information on the network, not only from authoritarian countries, but also democratic. Under the legal names of projects such as European Commissions’ ACTA or ITR (International Telecommunications Regulations) operated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU – the specialized organization of United Nations) there are smuggled provisions that main goal is to better control the Internet, and thus the flow of information in the world. Citizens of many countries recognize this as a desire to limit their rights and freedoms, so they loudly oppose such regulations. There is a war for control over information. This war has already started decades ago and on its course not only politicians, big business and the media have an impact, but also to the fore come Internet users – citizens of free countries.

Anxiety is one of the most fundamental social phenomena nowadays. It has important impact on our societies, especially after the terrorist attack of 11/9/2001. It shapes social processes and plays a vital role in political activity. It has also become significant as an object of scientific research. Among many research perspectives that take into account different causes and consequences of anxiety existence in social processes, Terror management theory (TMT) is especially inspiring and promising. According to TMT, human beings are aware of the inevitability of death and that leads them to feel an overwhelming terror. It is managed by the maintenance of cultural worldviews and high self-esteem which allows to return to psychological equanimity. Some attitudes arise when terror appears, for example: high nationalism, high conformism and acceptance for charismatic leaders. This paper considers the possibility of applying TMT in research on Polish political discourse after Smoleńsk plane crash of 10/04/2010. The constant exposition of mortality in the Polish media after the tragic flight in which 96 well known politicians and social leaders, including the President Lech Kaczyński died, should lead to reveal the mechanism described by TMT.

The shaping of a politician’s image may be considered in terms of various research aspects. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to the issue of the use of communication strategies from the fields of PR and political marketing in the context of building a negative message, using the following mechanisms: anomie, conspiracy theory – political paranoia and political lies. From a psychological point of view, anomie can mean “a dearth of sense, a dearth of meaning”. The cause of this phenomenon is always sought for outside ourselves, in states of confusion and disorientation, when we want to find those guilty of an event/socio-political situation. These treatments are frequently combined with the building of a “conspiracy theory”. They appear at specific moments in history, or in specific socio-political formations. They may relate to the collective mentality (operating on the principle of legends or myths). In the analysed context, they are states of consciousness of an individual who also performs important public and political functions. Their use in a political creation consists primarily of finding, for oneself and others, the existence of a collective enemy and fighting it. The result of this approach is the creation of the phenomenon of “political paranoia” as a particular way of thinking about politics. Another element of this puzzle is the articulation by politicians of a political lie. This phenomenon (according to definition) occurs when someone utters a claim that s/he knows or suspects is false, in the hope that others will consider it to be true. Lying is an action deliberately

In their relations with political system, media are becoming a self-reliant entity performing diverse functions because they control actions of authorities, defi ne conflict, have an ability to correct the actions of authorities and stimulate political decisions. Modern societies needing entertainment leave their mark of change also on media which are swiftly becoming part of an existing climate. Also, they want to meet expectations of recipients, so even political content is shown in the light version. The aim of the presentation is to show signs of entertainmentization politics being broadcasted by traditional media and on the Internet which seems to be dominant in this respect. The above-mentioned elements of the analysis will show the scale of the entertainmentization phenomenon in politics, which is still developing and assuming new forms

The main objective of this paper is to show examples of coexistence and interaction of media and propaganda, in a historical perspective and today, in the broader context of phenomena of politics mediatization and propagandization of political communication. In particular, the author examines and determines the propaganda potential (social, psychological, communication and technology) of the Internet and its use in political practice.

In this study I wrote about the findings of the BKF Viadukt research among Hungarian teenagers. Thanks to the focus group research and the survey, we found that Hungarian teenagers openly and willingly talk about their social media use habits, give access to their data, profile and cover pictures, the structure of their social network and the applications they use. They usually gave access to save their personal data for the research. We were able to determine what social media channels were popular among them in 2013, which were used more actively, and for what purposes.